The excellent health of weekend athletes

Concentrating 150 minutes of physical activity on the weekend provides health benefits similar to the same duration of exercise spread over the seven days of the week.

A multitude of studies have clearly shown that physical activity reduces the risk of several chronic diseases and premature mortality.

Consequently, the World Health Organization recommends practicing a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, whether in the form of sport (brisk walking, running, tennis, cross-country skiing) or work. domestic (home DIY, garden maintenance, household chores).

While the duration of physical activity to improve health is well established, there are no clear recommendations on how often these exercises should be performed.

Do we absolutely have to achieve these 150 minutes of activity by going at a regular pace, for example by doing 30 minutes of exercise per day for 5 days? 60 minutes for 3 days? 150 minutes in 1, 2 days? This question is important for people who do not have a lot of time available during the week due to work and/or family responsibilities; moreover, studies show that lack of time is the constraint most frequently invoked to justify the lack of physical activity.

Weekend athletes

The weekend is often the only time suitable for physical activity, and people who like to be physically active will often concentrate their 150 minutes of weekly exercise during this period. Do these “weekend sportspeople” (weekend warriors in English) enjoy the same benefits of exercise as those who do less physical activity, but every day?

To answer this question, American researchers analyzed data collected from 89,573 people participating in the UK Biobank prospective study. Using wrist accelerometers that recorded their total physical activity and time spent at different exercise intensities, they were able to classify participants as “regularly active,” “weekend active,” or “inactive” (1). They then examined the potential associations between these physical activity habits and the risk of developing different types of diseases, both physical and neurological.

The highlight of the study is that compared to inactive people, those who are physically active, whether on a regular basis or only on weekends, have a significantly lower risk of being affected by more than 200 types of diseases .

This association is particularly strong for cardiometabolic diseases such as hypertension (risk reduction of 23% for weekend athletes and 28% for regular athletes) and diabetes (risks reduced by 43% and 46%, respectively).

Another study focusing more specifically on mental health comes to similar conclusions, that is to say that weekend athletes have a lower risk of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, depression and anxiety compared to inactive people, and that this protection is identical to that of people who exercise regularly (2).

Be active, in any way

It is therefore the total volume of exercise carried out during the week which is important in terms of reducing the risk of chronic diseases and premature mortality. It doesn’t matter how you get there, whether it’s a little every day or a lot during the weekend: the only thing that matters is staying active.

(1) Kany S et coll. Associations of “weekend warrior” physical activity with incident disease and cardiometabolic health. Circulationpublished September 26, 2024.

(2) Min J et coll. Accelerometer-derived ‘weekend warrior’ physical activity pattern and brain health. Nat Agingpublished on August 21, 2024.